Background
The epidemic of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) struck China in late December,2019, resulting in about 200000 deaths all over the world. Numerous observational studies have suggested that the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and lymphocyte proportion and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are inflammatory markers. Our study aimed to detect the role of NLR, PLR in predicting the prognosis of COVID-19.
Results
Four hundred and fifteen consecutive patients were enrolled in Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center affiliated to Fudan University, between 20 January and 11 April 2020 with confirmed COVID-19,among which 386 (93%) patients were not severe, and 27 (7%) were severe. The proportion of males in severe cases is higher than in non-severe cases (75.86% vs. 50.52%, P = 0.008). The age between the two groups is different (p = 0.022). Compared with non-severe patients, severe patients exhibited more comorbidities, including hypertension (48.28% vs. 19.43%, p < 0.001), diabetes (20.69% vs. 6.99%, p = 0.009), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (51.72% vs. 6.22%, p < 0.001), and fatty liver (37.93% vs. 15.8%, p = 0.002), respectively. NLR and PLR showed significant difference (p < 0.001). Diabetes (OR 0.28; 95% CI 15.824-187.186), fatty liver (OR 21.469; 95% CI 2.306-199.872), coronary heart disease (OR 18.157; 95% CI 2.085-158.083), NLR (OR 1.729; 95% CI 1.050–2.847) were significantly associated with severe cases with COVID-19. The NLR of patients in severe group had a 1.729-fold higher than that of no-severe group (OR 1.729; 95% CI 1.050–2.847, P = 0.031).
Conclusions
NLR is an independent risk factor of severe COVID-19 patients. PLR, NLR were significantly different between severe and non-severe patients, so assessment of NLR, PLR may help identify high risk cases with COVID-19.